Since 1997, Blizzard Internet Marketing has teamed up with hospitality marketers to create smart online marketing strategies for lodging and travel websites.

During the last week of September, Blizzard Internet is hosting a 2-day hands-on workshop in their home town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado where their long time clients, new clients, and other hotel marketers looking to discover what is new in search marketing will gather.

The workshop titled “Google and Foundations” will cover proven search strategies and how to integrate them it to a 2010 marketing plan. Leading the workshop is Blizzard Internet’s President and Co-Founder, Trent Blizzard, who is known for bringing a fresh and proven perspective to search marketing. Trent comments that:

“Blizzard Internet clients who are committed to growing their online marketing presence are the first to sign up for our workshops. They understand that successful marketing means teamwork; work is done both by Blizzard Internet experts but also by their in-house team, and together we can take their search engine presence to the next level. Both our new clients and other hospitality companies wanting to learn attend because they are ready to outrank and out perform their competitors.”

After the 2-day workshop, attendees will leave knowing:

• How to optimize their website for search engines
• The best tools for researching keywords, tracking results, and spying on their competitors
• How to successfully build powerful links to their website
• The ins and outs of how Google works
• The latest strategies to compete for guests in today’s saturated market

Event Details:
When:  September 29th and 30th of 2009
Who:  Hotel, Resort, Vacation Rental, and Travel Related Website Marketers
Where:  Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Bring: Your Laptop
Register Here:  Google and Foundations Workshop

One fee based resource we recommend everyone sign up for is Best of the Web (aka BOTW)

No matter whether you are big or small, I recommend you spend $99 a year (or $249 onetime – lifetime) to join this directory.  When you join you get short description and a nice link:

Visit Best of the Web to see if you are already listed (just search for your domain name), and, to sign yourself up if you aren’t already.

The economic news is very doom and gloom these days – but if you’re a drive-to destination – you’re in luck.  Gas is getting cheaper!

Today I paid $2.22 a gallon.  That’s pretty high still – we’re not very far from some major ski areas in the mountains of Colorado.  That being said – I’m more likely now to drive myself to a vacation than I was just six-months ago.

Marketing to these drive-to shoppers presents some unique challenges, especially for vacation rental managers.  There are some tips I can suggest to take advantage of this market – If you have any of your own to add – please feel free to list them in the comments below: (more…)

I read about a new PhoCusWright study today over at HotelMarketing.com that outlines a dramatic growth in the vacation rental market.

The study, “Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change” (purchased report) reveals that the current 2.8 billion in online booking of vacation rentals is 12% of overall vacation rental revenue – and is expected to grow by 17% by 2010.

As someone who prefers vacation rentals, the amenities to cost benefits are astounding and it’s apparent more of the market is catching on.  I love having a kitchen and a washer and dryer when we’re on vacation.  I have kids – both are messy and picky – so when I can make them breakfast or lunch they’ll eat – and keep them in clean clothes without packing two weeks worth – it’s completely worth not having an elevator or on-site restaurant.

“12% of vacation rentals were booked online in 2007 compared to over half of all leisure travel that was booked online, so there’s a tremendous long-term upside to this market, many consumers are frustrated by the difficulty of finding the right property, overcoming issues like a minimum required length of stay, and booking through a company they can trust. Companies that can help consumers overcome these issues will be best positioned to capture this opportunity”

Douglas Quinby, Senior Director, Research, PhoCusWright

Play up the benefits of a vacation rental over a plain hotel room in your marketing efforts:

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Anyone who’s watched the news lately has probably come away feeling a bit depressed about our current economic state. I’m a planner. I hate not knowing what’s going to happen and how to prepare; this is exactly why I’m addressing the issue. I realized many of our trusted clients and partners have most likely had these same concerns and are wondering what this means for their online business. Here at Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc. we feel ignoring the challenges at hand accomplishes nothing. We value your business and hope to relay a message of encouragement, support, and most importantly, trust.

Let’s start off with some good news. For eleven years Blizzard Internet has brought clients successful online marketing campaigns. We’ve been through it all. From the burst of the dot com bubble, to Google surpassing Microsoft as “the most valuable global brand”. We’ve gone through the ups and downs of Internet marketing before and have always managed to come out on top. Through the years, we’ve gained knowledge and perfected our products. We know what works and what doesn’t work and realize your success is dependant upon our success. We currently have over fifty in-house employees and have a team of experts specifically dedicated to innovation and adapting products to economic trends. To be successful within the travel industry our experts have always felt strong about one thing, with or without the effect of a struggling economy, you cannot neglect your website. In fact, we are currently in the process of redesigning our own company website, as well as, beefing up our search engine optimization. If anything, we feel it’s more important now than ever.

In a survey conducted by MarketingProfs on how the economy is affecting marketing decisions it stated marketers are turning away from traditional marketing tactics and spending more online. MarketingProfs further explains the benefits: First, most publishers are having a hard time filling prime advertising space, which means you have a chance to buy at a stellar price. Secondly, if you can manage to hold on while your competitors panic and irrationally slash their budgets, you’ll most likely come out on top when the recession ends. Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes, “This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.” I believe Quelch sums it up best by stating, “Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.”

Our friends over at Google are already adapting by brainstorming new ways to boost business within the travel industry. In fact, at Google’s annual TravelThink conference, more than a hundred travel executives took a survey in which the findings are quiet reassuring.

“Ninety-four percent of travel executives said online advertising would provide the strongest return on investment compared to other media in the next 12 months. Some twenty percent of travel advertisers will spend more than $10 million in online marketing this year, and more than half will spend $1 million or more. Search engine optimization was the top marketing tactic along with e-mail, according to the study commissioned by Google.”

JupiterResearch at Google’s TravelThink 2008

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In 1933, the General Manager of the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis placed three ducks in the Grand Lobby fountain of the hotel. What was intended to be a silly prank became an instant sensation with guests, both young and old. “The Peabody Ducks” were there to stay.

In 1940, Bellman Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, joined the Peabody Hotel staff as the official “Peabody Duckmaster”. Pembroke went to work training the ducks to perform the now world-famous “Peabody Duck March” from their Duck Palace on the roof, down the elevator, through the lobby, and into their fountain. In the evening the ceremony is reversed to the delight of dozens of spectators.

Over the years the Peabody Ducks have become truly famous and are now inseparable from the Peabody Hotel itself. They are featured in the hotel logo and marketing materials, the hotel gift shop is filled with duck souvenirs, and virtually every review written acknowledges the feathered procession. They are truly a Peabody staple.

In 2003, The Peabody conducted a national search to replace the late Mr. Pembroke with a new Duckmaster. Amazingly, the effort earned national media attention when it was picked up by CNN, CBS, and the Wall Street Journal. Countless blog posts, YouTube videos, and articles have been inspired. Website links have been earned, news stories written, social media buzz created, and exceptional brand awareness fostered all for the price of bird seed. Remarkable!

As human beings, our memories are linked to emotion. In a world of routine, that which is surprising stands out. In a lifetime of hotel stays, Ducks make more of an impression than nice sheets and a mint on the pillow. Children who view the duck march will bring their children years later. People relaying stories of their vacation will certainly talk about the red carpet walk. Families will return at the request of their kids. Referral business, the bread and butter of any venture, will flourish without effort.

Much can be learned from The Peabody Ducks. Specials, great amenities, clean rooms, packages, friendly service, etc; these are all important for sustaining a successful hospitality business. However, to truly rise above and beyond the competition, you need something special. Perhaps one of the most profitable activities a business owner could engage in is some creative thinking. A single “Peabody Duck idea” could be a gold mine for decades.

We at Blizzard are very excited about one of the newest products in our line – Blizzard Reservation Engine.  The product was released to a chosen small group of clients 6 months ago and with the early success that we have seen thus far, we are ready to release it to the general public. 

While there are some good booking engines out there, we have heard many clients over the years talk about things they wish that they could do and we set out to address them with Blizzard Reservation Engine:

1. Usability and Conversion issues that include appearance (matching the rest of site), speed, quick search and a way to manage specials.
2. Marketing issues that include SEO friendliness, branding and analytics.
3. Flexibility issues that are primarily centered on the fact that many are not customizable with features that the client wants to see.

After digesting all of these issues, we were ready to come out with a solution to offer clients the features they wanted.  We had no intent to build our own booking engine, but instead just wanted to offer these features to an existing booking engine so we worked together with Instant Software, who provides some very strong property management and booking products to offer a solution to clients using their ISI Link  product.  Here is a presentation on Blizzard Reservation Engine for those wanting to see more about it.  I will also take some time to answer some of the questions on the basics that you may have below.

What is Blizzard Reservation Engine? 
Blizzard Reservation Engine (BRE) is a product that allows your booking engine to be more customized and that adds many SEO features that are not currently available on most booking engines.

Who needs Blizzard Reservation Engine?
Currently BRE is a great product for any clients using the Instant Software products V12, Property Plus or Entech that want more customization of that engine on their site than they currently enjoy.  It is also for any of these clients that want to have quick search features or increased specials management, as well as anyone looking to take full advantage of the SEO opportunities that are available when every page in your booking engine is available to be optimized.

How is it different than other booking engines?
Although there are multiple differences the one that may be most important to property owners is that this has been designed with SEO and ease of use as its primary objective.  The ability to have such complete control over content and SEO features in your booking engine is something we haven’t really seen anywhere else.  The ability to manage the photos and descriptions of every property allow the property owner complete control of the presentation of their properties.  Blizzard Reservations also has the capability to offer analytics on its pages that many booking engines just aren’t able to provide because of its complete integration with our tracking solution.

Why is SEO important on booking pages?
SEO is important on booking pages because these pages are a much larger part of the average website than most property owners realize.  Each individual property has its own page.  Each category of property can have its own page, not to mention specials, packages and amenities.  For many property owners or property management companies it can be like enlarging your current site tenfold because these pages live on your website and now not only have you increased the size of your site tenfold, but you have done it all with pages that can be optimized for peak performance in search engines.  The potential that this adds to your website performance can’t be overstated.  One client that has had Blizzard Reservation Engine only 3 months has already seen BRE pages become 6 of their top 10 viewed pages including one of them second only behind the websites home page.  This is the opportunity that is unleashed through Blizzard Reservation Engine.

Is there somewhere where I can see how it works?
We do have a demo version available at http://reservations.blizzardinternet.com.  Unless your command of Latin is exquisite, you won’t find the reading enlightening, but this gives you an excellent opportunity to try out the search features and to get a feel for the layout, including the presentation of specials, quick search, advanced search, properties and packages. 

How do I get more information if I am interested?
If Blizzard Reservation Engine looks like a product that suits your needs and you would like to talk to us more about it, you can always email us or give us a call at 888-840-5893 ext.306.